Asean Chief On Summit Delay
By Sobrina Rosli

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong reiterated yesterday the decision to delay that the 12th Asean annual summit had nothing to do with terrorist threats as some media speculated.

In a telephone interview with The Brunei Tunes, the secretarygeneral insisted the host, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had decided to postpone the summit purely due to the anticipation of the threat from Typhoon Seniang.

"The postponement of the summit was due to the weather and security reasons speculated by the media is unknown of," Mr Ong reaffirmed.

President Arroyo decided last Friday to delay the summit to January. She pointed out the safety of the participants at the summit were at stake. Typhoon Durian, which attacked the country earlier this month, had claimed hundreds of victims. Apart from their annual summit, originally scheduled to be held for seven days until yesterday, the Asean leaders were also scheduled to hold meetings with their counterparts from China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. 'They were expected to hold the East Asian Summit yesterday.

Mr Ong expressed his confidence that the summit will be held next month. "It is confirmed the summit will be held in January next year though we do not have a date yet to confirm," the Singaporean diplomat explained.

Mr Ong added, the Asean Eminent Person's Group (EPG) was scheduled to present their recommendations to the regional grouping leaders in Cebu. The EPG members had gathered in Bandar Seri Begawan late last month. Part of the recommendation is how to find ways to improve and strengthen the present arrangement of Asean. They mainly discussed the structure of Asean today. Mr Ong commented that part of the recommendation was that the meetings be reorganised into an improved three components of communities of Asean's core pillars.

"The Asean Security and Political cooperation community, the Asean Economic community and the Asean Social and Cultural community where under each component there will be certain rules and regulations ensuring the effectiveness of the implementation of agreements as well as making certain improved coordination among parties involved along with the reorganisation of agreements," he said.

He went on to say that the EPG also proposed to the leaders to abandon, its traditional consensus policy, which is often said to be ineffective and to take more decisive policies. The EPG also recommended to replace the consensus approach with a voting system was necessary on certain issues or when consensus cannot be achieved. Steps taken in narrowing the developmental gap between the Asean member countries was also discussed.

"Countries like Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia are considered to be the more developed Asean countries and countries like Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia' are regarded to be the less developed countries," he said citing the EPG report.

The report suggested that more advanced economies must assist the less developed countries and discussions of initiatives that could be taken in raising the countries economies and how to consider the gap between the two groups of countries, he further noted.

The third topic discussed was the rules and obligations of Asean membership where the EPG says each member should adhere to.

"The EPG commented that each member of Asean has certain responsibilities and obligations, failing to measure up to these, it was recommended the matter be taken to their leaders for further action," he spoke on the matter.

Asean members may be penalised for not complying with the broad objectives of the grouping and could even face expulsion from the grouping.

"These were the three key elements discussed by the EPG that is hoped to complement with the Asean structure, the findings are recommendations that would be presented to their leaders," he added. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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